A Tribute to Jean-Luc Xiberras

compiled by Annick Teninge and Georges
Lacroix

The architect of the highly regarded Annecy International Animated
Film Festival, Jean-Luc Xiberras passed away on December 26, 1998. We
wanted to pay tribute to him for his immense contribution to animation.
Here an international selection of friends, colleagues and animators
give their final thoughts on a man whose presence in animation will
long linger.

I got to know Jean-Luc in Moscow in 1983. I was
working on a broadcast about animation in the Soviet Union, and Jean-Luc
accompanied me for several days. I remember how excited he was to meet
Ivan Ivanov Vano, the master of all the younger animators at the government
animation studio. I can still see him, arms behind his back and head
thrust forward, touring every corner of the studios, leafing through
all the sketches, curious about everything. I remember how pleased he
was to share tea, fried onions and white cheese with Yuri Norstein beside
an enormous animation stand built in a deconsecrated chapel in old Moscow.
And then all those memories since, marking fifteen years of friendship,
that remain so vivid...

International animation has lost a true friend
and admirer. He was faithful to animation through the last days of his
life. But Jean-Luc left us the best heritage of which we could have
dreamed. The Annecy Festival. Becoming one of the most important festivals
in the world of animation, this special occasion was created by Jean-Luc
with all his love, energy and enthusiasm. To be a part of and to experience
the Annecy Festival, left to us by Jean-Luc Xiberras, is what I wish
for many future generations of animators.

Alexandre PetrovDirector, Painter, Animator

Jean-Luc was a great professional who made the
Annecy Festival the grand manifestation that it became. He was also
a man who gave us a sacred lesson in the way he fought the sickness
which finally ended him. He was also a friend, a true one, who, once
he had given his friendship, would never retract it.